Text Complexityand

Nancy Frey, PhD

Text-dependent Questions

K-2 ELA

If you can read this…

If you can read this…Thank a teacher!

If you can read this…

effectively and write a analytical essay in under 42 minutes, and you meet all the

math standards, objectives, and learning targets set forth by the Common

Core State Standards, and you walk briskly through life in a healthy body taking

10,000 steps a day, while experiencing social and emotional well being, and you

can effectively utilize technology and social media to access and analyze important

information, and you play the piano perfectly…

If you can read this…

effectively and write a analytical essay in under 42 minutes, and you meet all the

math standards, objectives, and learning targets set forth by the Common

Core State Standards, and you walk briskly through life in a healthy body taking

10,000 steps a day, while experiencing social and emotional well being, and you

can effectively utilize technology and social media to access and analyze important

information, and you play the piano perfectly…

Thank a teacher!

Leaders wear many hats.

Skilled learners

are nurtured.

Skilled leaders

need to be nurtured, too.

Take SixWrite as many entries on the ABC chart as

possible while the other rolls

the die. Switch roles each time

you roll 6!

Take SixTerms related to the ELA

Common Core State Standards

(e.g., “text-dependent questions”)

Take SixCompare papers with your

partner and add terms to your

own. How many terms did you

collectively gather?

10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

“Standard 10 defines a grade-by-grade‘staircase’ of increasing text complexity that rises from beginning readingto the college and career readiness level.” (CCSS, 2010, p. 80)

“Fewer, Clearer, Higher”

Key Features of the Standards

Key Features of the Standards

Text complexity and the growth of comprehension.

Key Features of the Standards

Text types, responding to

reading, and research.

Text complexity and the growth of comprehension.

Key Features of the Standards

Text types, responding to

reading, and research.

Flexible communication and collaboration.

Text complexity and the growth of comprehension.

Key Features of the Standards

Text types, responding to

reading, and research.

Flexible communication and collaboration.

Text complexity and thegrowth of comprehension.

Academic language,

vocabulary, and effective use.

Key Features of the Standards

Text types, responding to

reading, and research.

Flexible communication and collaboration.

Text complexity and the growth of comprehension.

Academic language,

vocabulary, and effective use.

All must be present for literacy learning.

“Read like a detective, write like a reporter.”

K-5 Reading Standards

Expository

Expository

Persuasive

Expository

Persuasive

Narrative

Students produce as well as read complex texts.

Quantitative Measures

Quantitative Measures

Use quantitative info to identify grade bands.

Qualitative Values

• Background• Prior• Cultural• Vocabulary

• Standard English• Variations• Register

• Genre• Organization• Narration• Text Features• Graphics

• Density and Complexity• Figurative Language• Purpose

Levels of Meaning Structure

Knowledge Demands

Language Convention and Clarity

Levels of Meaning and Purpose

• Density and complexity

• Figurative language

• Purpose

Density and Complexity

Gibbons, G. (1996). Recycle! A handbook for kids.New York; Little, Brown.

Types of Vocabulary• Tier 1/General

– Commonplace; learned from interactions with texts and people

• Tier 2/Specialized– Change meaning with context

(“polysemic”)• Tier 3/Technical

– Specific to the discipline

Density and Complexity

• More and more garbage! Every day people throw more trash away. As the world population increases, more people throw trash away. Garbage trucks come to pick it up, but where does all this trash go?

• Blue = Tier 1 vocabularyGibbons, G. (1996). Recycle! A handbook for kids.New York; Little, Brown.

Density and Complexity

• More and more garbage! Every day people throw more trash away. As the world population increases, more people throw trash away. Garbage trucks come to pick it up, but where does all this trash go?

• Blue = Tier 1 vocabulary • Green = Tier 2 vocabularyGibbons, G. (1996). Recycle! A handbook for kids.New York; Little, Brown.

Density and Complexity

• More and more garbage! Every day people throw more trash away. As the world population increases, more people throw trash away. Garbage trucks come to pick it up, but where does all this trash go?

• Blue = Tier 1 vocabulary • Green = Tier 2 vocabulary • Red = Tier 3 vocabularyGibbons, G. (1996). Recycle! A handbook for kids.New York; Little, Brown.

Structure

• Genre

• Organization

• Narration

• Text features and graphics

Structure

Changes in narration, point of view

Changes in font signal narration changes

Complex themes

Language Conventions

• Standard English and variations

• Register

Language Conventions

Non-standard English usage

“Out in the hottest, dustiest part of town is an orphanage run by a female person nasty enough to scare night into day. She goes by the name of Mrs. Sump, though I doubt there ever was a Mr. Sump on accounta she looks like somethin’ the cat drug in and the dog wouldn’t eat.”

(Stanley, 1996, p. 2)

Knowledge Demands

• Background knowledge

• Prior knowledge

• Cultural knowledge

• Vocabulary

Knowledge Demands

Prior experience (Secondary text on technical directions and related information )

Background knowledge (technical drawings and directions for making a paper airplane, invention process, mythology)

Qualitative Values

• Background• Prior• Cultural• Vocabulary

• Standard English• Variations• Register

• Genre• Organization• Narration• Text Features• Graphics

• Density and Complexity• Figurative Language• Purpose

Levels of Meaning Structure

Knowledge Demands

Language Convention and Clarity

Use qualitative values to

identify specific grade levels.

Task and Reader

TextQuantitative Qualitative

ReaderCognitive capabilitiesMotivationKnowledgeExperience

TaskTeacher-ledPeer-ledIndependent

Our goal with complex text is to slow the reader down.

Annotation is a note of any form made while reading text.

“Reading with a pencil.”

People have been annotating texts since there have been

texts to annotate.

Annotation is not highlighting.

Annotation slows down the reader in order to

deepen understanding.

Annotation occurs with digital and print texts.

Annotation in Kindergarten

• Language experience approach• Interactive writing and shared pen activities

1 23 4

5

Kemp, L. M. (1996). One peaceful pond: A counting book. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Modeled Annotation in Kindergarten

Harvey, S., & Goudvis, A. (2007). Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension for Understanding and Engagement. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Modeled Annotation in Second

Even young students can annotate.

Read IRA’s Guidance on Literacy Implementation for CCSS.

What are the implications for your school?

Are there misconceptions your staff might hold?

How will you deepen their understanding of literacy development?

Close Reading

“X-ray the book”

“X-ray the book”

Not every reading is a close one!

In the primary grades, close reading is accomplished through interactive

read alouds and shared readings.

Creating a Close Reading

Creating a Close Reading

Short passage

Creating a Close Reading

Short passage

Complex text

Creating a Close Reading

Short passage

Complex text

Limited frontloading

Creating a Close Reading

Short passage

Complex text

Limited frontloading

Repeated readings

Multiple readings often make this unnecessary

The Role of Pre-reading

Multiple readings often make this unnecessary

The Role of Pre-reading• Too often provides

information students can glean from careful reading of the text

• Hard to wean students from this

• Similarly challenging to move teachers away from providing this “smoothing of the road”

Creating a Close Reading

Short passage

Complex text

Limited frontloading

Repeated readings

Text-dependent questions

Characteristics of Text-dependent questions

• Questions that can only be answered with evidence from the text

• Can be literal but can also involve analysis, synthesis, evaluation

• Focus on word, sentence and paragraph as well as larger ideas, themes or events

• Focus on difficult portions of text in order to enhance reading proficiency

Characteristics of Text-dependent questions

Progression of Text-dependent Questions

Opinions, Arguments, Intertextual Connections

Inferences

Author’s PurposeVocab & Text

Structure

Key Details

General UnderstandingsPart

Sentence

Paragraph

Entire text

Across texts

Word

Whole

Segments

General Understandings• Overall view • Sequence of

information• Story arc• Main claim and

evidence• Gist of passage

General Understandings in Kindergarten

Retell the story in order using the words beginning, middle, and end.

Key Details

• Search for nuances in meaning

• Determine importance of ideas

• Find supporting details that support main ideas

• Answers who, what, when, where, why, how much, or how many.

Key Details in Kindergarten

• How long did it take to go from a hatched egg to a butterfly?

• What is one food that gave him a stomachache? What is one food that did not him a stomachache?

It took more than 3 weeks. He ate for one week, and then “he stayed inside [his cocoon] for more than two weeks.”

• Chocolate cake• Ice cream• Pickle• Swiss cheese• Salami• Lollipop• Cherry pie• Sausage• Cupcake• watermelon

Foods that did not give him a stomachache

• Apples• Pears• Plums• Strawberries• Oranges• Green leaf

Foods that gave him a stomachache

Vocabulary and Text Structure• Bridges literal and

inferential meanings• Denotation• Connotation• Shades of meaning• Figurative language• How organization

contributes to meaning

Vocabulary in Kindergarten

How does the author help us to understand what cocoon means?

There is an illustration of the cocoon, and a sentence that reads, “He built a small house, called a cocoon, around himself.”

• Genre: Entertain? Explain? Inform? Persuade?

• Point of view: First-person, third-person limited, omniscient, unreliable narrator

• Critical Literacy: Whose story is not represented?

Author’s Purpose

Author’s Purpose in Kindergarten

Who tells the story—the narrator or the caterpillar?

A narrator tells the story, because he uses the words he and his. If it was the caterpillar, he would say I and my.

Inferences

Probe each argument in persuasive text, each idea in informational text,

each key detail in literary text, and

observe how these build to a whole.

Inferences in Kindergarten

The title of the book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar. How do we know he is hungry?

The caterpillar ate food every day “but he was still hungry.” On Saturday he ate so much food he got a stomachache! Then he was “a big, fat caterpillar” so he could build a cocoon and turn into a butterfly.

Opinions, Arguments, and Intertextual Connections

• Author’s opinion and reasoning (K-5)• Claims• Evidence• Counterclaims• Ethos, Pathos, Logos• Rhetoric

Links to other texts throughout the grades

Opinions and Intertextual Connections in Kindergarten

NarrativeIs this a happy story or a

sad one? How do you know?

InformationalHow are these two books

similar? How are they different?

How does purpose and meaningful collaborative work fit into this lesson?

Lesson design

Don’t over-teach. Students with

disabilities and English learners have the right to

appropriately struggle!

• Provide students with copies of text-dependent questions in advance of reading.

• Pre-teach reading, especially background knowledge and cognates.

• Provide realia or visual glossaries to support student learning.

• Highlight contextual clues.

Accommodations for Close Reading

Develop Text-dependent Questions for Your Reading

Do the questions require the reader to return to the text?

Do the questions require the reader to use evidence to support his or her ideas or claims?

Do the questions move from text-explicit to text-implicit knowledge?

Are there questions that require the reader to analyze, evaluate, and create?

293 days until Moving Day

Fostering Transition to CCSS• How will you shift attention to curriculum,

while preserving quality instruction?• How will teams make decisions about

what to edit, and what to add in curriculum?

• How will teams learn how to reduce some practices (e.g., pre-reading), and add new practices (e.g., close reading)?

Using Foundational Work to Build UponHow will you use this foundational knowledge to build capacity? What resources do you have? What do you need?

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